Message from Gino on RPF:

This is the ANH Darth Vader helmet PCR.
It was made from a scan of the Legend master and will be injection molded.
I have to say that I was very impressed with the initial prototype as from several feet away it could just about pass for one of the fiberglass limited versions.
The helmet in the pics was the first attempt so improvements have already been made such as the widows peak, chin triangle cutout, and return edges on the dome. The paint job will be better and the lenses and mesh are just temporary stand-ins.

The price point for this piece is estimated to be $299
Timeframe for release is estimated to be early next year.

Time frame early next year....

While biting my tongue about delivery times, final product quality, etc, I have to say I actually rather like it! The price point of $299, while a bit steep, doesn't seem too far out of line compared to $189 for the Stormtrooper.

From a manufacturing standpoint this looks like a perfectly sensible move for their product mix. With an injection molded mass-produced item like this you have much fewer concerns over QC like the ones which have been giving them fits for their limited edition stuff. Once the tooling costs are behind you it's dirt cheap to produce and deliver. They are probably thinking "we aren't having any trouble delivering the Stormtrooper helmet so let's do another thing just like it to keep a steadier cash flow and keep people happy". It also helps their somewhat damaged reputation as being a great promiser and non-deliverer of products. Although I have a few Captain America related items I haven't paid too much attention to their Marvel stuff much so I don't know if they are having the same delivery issues with any of those limited pieces.

It does strike me as an interesting move in terms of what market they are going after. As far as I am concerned the market for Darth Vader helmets seems to be more than flooded yet there is obviously still something of a demand and undoubtedly there will be even more interest once The Force Awakens is in theaters. I'm guessing efx sees this "lower price point" helmet as an opportunity to snag the more casual costumer or budget constrained consumer in an already flooded market yet fills the gap between the Rubies and Hasbro end of things and the higher end/more expensive/harder to obtain fiberglass helmets. This version of the helmet certainly has qualities that make it stand out among the crap already out there and can give fans an "authentic" helmet with a definite pedigree even if the helmet has been sanitized to a greater extent than their Legend/Limited helmets. It's certainly miles ahead in lineage and geometry than the Rubies Supreme with its "Cast from Original Molds" nonsense splashed on the package.

Now all they have to do is get it in stores.

LMAO!

well, what i want to know is this...
if it was a digital scan of the legend master as gino said it was, then why is the widows peak non existent?
at least it looks that was in the photos i have seen. but after reading this it must be true. reason why they are mentioning fixing it and everything else that is wrong with it.

but what boggles my mind is that, if it is a digital scan of the LM then why would there be any need to address all of the areas that he mentioned that needs to be addressed?
wouldn't all of those areas be the exact same as it is on the legend master? i would think so if it was digitally scanned.
and then if that is truly the case then that would mean that the legend master has all of these flaws to it begin with right?

makes you wonder now even more if the Legend or their Vader helemt in general is what they say it is.. at least to me. and i could be the only one that is thinking this. if im wrong. please someone put me in my place.

I'd say it is that all it is derived from a scan of the ILM/Legend. They just cleaned it up to the nth degree to make it easier to mold. I'm just guessing here but it's possible that the sample is just a 3D printed test model rather than something pulled from actual molds. Now that they know it will work they can go back and tweak things before they lock it in and have the molds made. If it is a pull from molds they've had made then there's the question of what happened to the mold patterns once the Chinese got a hold of them to produce the results we see and why they need to be tweaked.

Still rather looking forward to the final results, marketing fluff notwithstanding

yeah true..
but Gino said it was a scan, so not sure why all those things they have to tweak or fix didn't show up if it was scanned.
still curious to see how the final product will look like once its done.

Post edited by SWC

If this is your helmet offer i may suggest that you shouldn't spam every Vader helmet thread with this offer

Daze1 I have a belief that your Daze on this forum will be limited with posts of that nature. But that will be up to the forum administrators.

Ah so the mystery Vader pictures I'd seen posted from NYCC 2015 are the prototype for a PCR Vader helmet from eFx. Very cool! It would have made sense to have introduced this a few years ago as it now will compete with the ANOVOS Vader helmet (though the ANOVOS helmet is not derived from original molds, is made of ABS, has reveal features, etc. so there is some differentiation).

The missing point for the widows peak could be a result of the way layers are typically applied bottom-to-top in a 3D print. They may need to finesse the 3D print commands to have another pass to construct the widows peak, after there's already material present for it to stick to.

The eFx PCR stormtrooper helmets (and the MR equivalents) as others noted were made with consistent quality. So that would bode well for a production run of these Vader helmets. But I will want to see pictures of a warehouse full of these helmets before plopping down any $$$ and not rely on a product announcement as indication of confirmed future production.

If you want to sell your helmet put it in the market place and don't put it in every fucking Vader thread here POS !!!

Edited by SWC

I can see the ban hammer coming soon...

And it won't be a loss